Elevator safety device



F D WILT ELEVATOR SAFETY DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 16, 191B.

- Patented Mar. 29, 1921.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I- F. n. WILT. ELEVATOR SAFETY DEVICE.

AP PLICATION FILED SEPT. 18, 1918.

3 SHEE1$-SHEET 2.

Patented Mar- 29 F. D. WILT.

ELEVATOR SAFETY DEVICE.

- FILED t I (63 I Patented Mal-.29, 1921.

3 S HEET sssssss a.

na rate star-as FRANK D. WITJT, OF ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.

nnnva'roa scenery DEVICE,

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar.29, 1921.

Application filed September 18, 1918. Serial No. 254,649.

To all whom z't may concern:

Be it known that T, FRANK D. VVILT, a citizen of the United States of America, resid ingat Allentown, in the county of Lehigh and State of Pennsylvania, have invented new and useful Improvements in Elevator Safety Devices, of which the following is a specification.

The purpose of the invention is toprovide a safety device for use with those kinds of elevators using a control cable for starting and stopping, the device having means for locking the control cable at the time the landing doors are open. is controlled by the landing doors and requires that the doors be closed to shift it to the unlocking position so that the control cable may be rendered operative for starting the car.

Other and further purposes of the inven tion appear in the following description wherein the same is set forth in detail. While illustrated and described as a safety device for use in swinging doors, the invention is not to be restricted to such use. It is adaptable to sliding doors as well as swinging doors and these specific elements shown to accomplish the object of the invention may be varied in the details of 'con--,

struction without departing from the spirit of the invention. Therefore, the right is reserved to make any such variations in detail as may be comprehended in spirit by the appended claims.

The same numerals of reference designate the same parts throughout the several fig ures of the drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the practical application of the invention to an elevator shaft whose landings are provided with double swinging doors. Y

Fig. 2 is a front elevational view of the control cable locking means, the cover therefor being shown in open position.

Fig. 3 Fig. l. ig. a is a bottom plan View of the door locking bolt keeper and its attendant mechanism.

Fig. 5 is an end view of the structure shown in Fig. 4L.

Fig. 6 is a section on the line 6-6 of Fig. 2.

The locking means is a section on the line 33 of i Fig. 7 is a section on the line 7-7 of Fig. V

Fig. 8 is a section on thei line '88 of Fig. 1'.

Fig. 9 is a perspective view of a modified form for operating the locking device.

Fig. 10 is a perspective view of the application of the invention to a sliding door;

Fig. 11 is a detail sectional view of the locking elements employed in the structure shown in Fig. 10.

Referring to the drawings and particle larly to Fig. l,'there is shown an elevator shaft in the vicinity of a landing which is closed by the swinging doors 1. The car movable in the shaft is of the character con trolled by a cable and, therefore, a section of the cable 2' is shown. In the vicinity of the landing, there is attached to the cable 2 a bar 3, the clamping members a being provided for the purpose of attaching this bar 3 to the cable. The clamping members 4 consist of two elements secured together by screws 5, the attachment of these screws serving to secure the clamping members to the bar 3 as well as to the cable 2, as clearly shown in Fig. 8. I

F or the purpose of guiding the bar 3 and providing a means for mounting other mechanism cooperating with the bar, there is a base plate 6 secured to the wall of the elevator shaft byappropriate screws 7. This plate 6 carries guiding rails 8 positioned one adjacent each edge of the bar 3,

so that the latter may be restricted to verti-j I The clamping members 4: which secure the bar 3 to the cable are of a character to hold the bar spaced away from the cable, so thatit parallels the cable throughout the length of the bar.

Mounted upon the plate 6 adjacent one of the rails 8 there is a member simulating a bell-crank lever in shape. This member is provided with a short arm 9 and a weighted portion 10 constituting the other arm, the member being pivotally mounted on the stud I The shorter arm 9 of this member piv- 11. otally connects with the lockingbar 12, the

arm 9 sustaining theweight' of the locking In order that the teeth of the locking bar may be insured engagement with the teeth 14 of the bar 3, there are provided the plates 15 secured one on either side of the locking bar adjacent its end, but projecting beyond the end of the latter and straddling the bar 3, so that there may be no lateral movement of the locking bar that might make for poor engagement between its teeth and the teeth 14. A hollow cover member 13 hingedly at tached to the plate 6 serves, when brought in contact with the plate to inclose the weighted element, the toothed portion of the bar 3 and the toothed end of the locking vbar. This hollow member 13 is appropriately recessed as shown at 13 and 13, so that.

both the bar 3 and the locking bar 12 and the cable 2 may pass into and out from under the hollow cover. It is obvious from the construction of the bell-crank element that the weight 10 serves normally to keep the locking bar in engagement with the bar 3 and so long as such engagement exists, all vertical movement of the bar 3 is precluded and therefore the cable 2 may not be moved. Thus if this engagement is causedto take place at the time when the car is atrest, the car may not be started until the disengagement of these parts.

The construction provides for this disengagement only at the time when the doors 1 are closed and both must be closed and locked before such disengagement can be effected. To that end, at the top of the door frame adjacent to that side of the shaft at which the control cable 2 iscarried, there is mounted a bearing member 16. Likewise at the top of the door frame but approximately in the middle of the same there is mounted a second bearing 17 the latter being cast integralwith the keeper plate 18 from which it is spaced, as shown in Fig. 4. In the bearings 16- and 17 there is j ournaled a shaft 19 and this shaft at one end-that projecting just out of the hearing 16-carries an arm 20. Mounted on the front wall of the shaft adjacent the door opening and on that side thereof adjacent the control cable 2, there is carried a bracket member 21 secured in place thereon by bolts 22 which pass through elongated holes 23 purpose the shaft 24 carries the arm 25 with which one end of a link 26 pivotally connects, the remaining end of the link being pivgage the teeth of the locking bar from the teeth 14 or to permit the weight 10 to effect this engagement. Such a rocking movement is imparted to the shaft 19 by means of the door locking bars 28. Each of the doors 1 carries one of these locking bars 28 and each door, therefore, carries a base plate 29 near its upper edge and this base plate carries aslide bearing 30 formed with a threaded stud 31 which effects engagement with the base plate. This threaded engagement between the stud and the base plate is loose enough to permit pivotal movement ofthe slide bearing 30 when the door locking bar is raised or lowered.

On each door and positioned at a point convenient to reach, there is carried an operating medium for the door locking bars 28. This operating medium comprises a base plate 32 appropriately attached to the door and a bent lever- 33 pivotally carried on the stud 34 securedto the base plate. This bent lever 33 on one side of the pivot stud 34 is formed with a handle 35, the portion 36 of a handle being made relatively heavy as compared with the remaining. The bent end of the lever pivotally connects with the door locking bars 28. It is apparent that when the bent lever 33 lies in a horizontal position, the doorlocking bar 28 is raised to its highest position, at which time it engages behind the keeper plate 18 to secure the door in locked position. It is also apparent that the shifting of the lever 33 to a vertical position moves the door locking bar 28 to a position where its free end may pass beneath the keeper plate 18. A stud 37 mounted on the base plate 32 limits the lever 33 to the horizontal'position to maintain the extended position of the locking bar 28.

That the door locking bars 28 may oper ate to rock the shaft 19 and thereby release the locking bolt 12 from the bar 3. there is provided a collar 38 secured on the shaft 19 on that end projecting beyond the hearing 17. This collar 38 is formed with a radially projecting stud 39 on which there is carried a swivel member consisting of two plates40 united by a web 41, the web being pivotally mounted on the stud 39. The two plates 40 are substantially S shaped in crosssection and on their lower faces may be en-' gaged by the free ends of the locking bars 28 when'the latter are raised to locking positions behind the keeper plate 18. If but one locking bar 28 is raised, such as would be the case were but one door locked, the

the shaft 19as a result.

swivel member would rock on its'pivotal stud 39 andthere would be no movement of When the other door is locked, however, that end of the swivel plate previously raised may not lower, but the other end of the swivel plate is perforce raised by the locking bar 28 of the door being closed. Therefore the pivot stud 39 must move to permit this end of the swivel plate to raise to make. room for thelocking bar. But the movement of the pivot stud 39 imparts an angular movement to the shaft 19 with the result that the con nections between it and the locking bar 12 are operated so as to disengage the teeth of the locking bar from the teeth of the bar 3, therefore releasing the cable 2 so that the car which it controls may be put in. motion. So long as the doors are locked, the locking bar 12 is disengaged from the bar 3, but immediately upon unlocking one or both of the doors, the weight 10 is permitted to operate to reengage the locking bar 12 and bar 3, thus locking the control cable 2 unti the doors 1 be again locked.

The bearings 17 and 16 and the shaft 19 are appropriately inclosed within ahousing 42 whose front wall 43 is inclined downwardly and outwardly fromjfithe elevator shaft. This housing 42 is made preferably of sheet metal and the front wall 43 is formed with a flange portion 44 secured to the front wall of the shaft just above the door opening.

Mounted upon the .doors 1 there are the angular shaped brackets 45 and these brackets carry the plates 46 diagonally disposed with reference to the inner faces of the doors, the plates being in alinement with the outer wall 43 of the housing 42 and their faces lying flush with the face of the front wall 43 of the housing 42. The plates 43 inclose the locking bars 28 for a certain portion of the length of the latter and, therefore, openings 47 are formed in the plates so that the locking bars may be extended therethrough to reach the bent lever 33.

The plates 46 and the front wall 43 of the housing provide means for deflecting objects projecting from the elevator platform away from the door openings as it is pass ing the latter and further than this they serve to inclose and protect those parts of the device which would be liable to damage were they not so inclosed.

1 to 8 except the door locking bars 28 and their attendant parts. In this modification, the bearing 17 is formed with a base plate 50 for attachment to the top part of the door opening, no keeper plate being provided in conjunction with the bearing 1n this form, the modification being for the character of both doors 51 which are held in locked position when closed by locking means 52 securing the free edges of the two doors together. i r

The swivel plate and its attendant parts are mounted on the shaft 19 in the same way as in the form shown in Fig. 1, but this swivel plate has a different position relative to-the doors from thatwhich it hasin Fig. 1. That the swivel plate may be operated to effect rocking of the'shaft 19, each of the doors 51 carries an L shaped member 53 designed for engagement with the plates 40 to operate the swivel plate and release the cable 2 in the manner heretofore described.

In Fig. 10 the invention is shown applied toa sliding door 60. This sliding door carries alocking member 61 engageable in a keeper plate 62, the connection of the lockingv member with its keeperplate being in the nature of a hooking engagement, as clearlyshown by the peculiar shapes of the parts concerned. Mounted on one side of the door opening near the top thereof there is a bell-crank lever 63 and a rod 64 pivotally connects with one arm of this bellcrank lever while the end remote from the said lever is slidingly held behind the keeper 62, this end being provided with a foot 65 engageable with the end of the locking member 61 when the latterengages the keeper. The locking bar 12 is replaced by the looking bar 66 which engages with the bar 3. This locking bar 66 is oifset, as shown, so that the end remote from the bar 3 may pivotally connect with the remaining arm of the bell-crank lever 63.

When the locking member 61 is disengaged from the keeper 62, the door 60 is unlocked and therefore the weight 10 operates to keep the locking bar 66 in engagement with the teeth 14, thus precluding any movement of the cable 2. When the door 10 is closed, however, and the locking member 61 engages the keeper 62, it engages also the foot 65, thus forcing the rod 64 downwardly to rock the bell-crank lever 63 and move the locking bar 66 to a position where its teeth no longer engage the teeth of the bar 3.

The invention having been described what is claimed as new and useful is:

1. In a device of the class described, the combination with an elevator control cable, of a bar secured thereto and provided with teeth on one edge, a locking bar also having teeth engageable with the first said teeth, a weighted member pivotally mounted on one wall of the elevator shaft and supporting near its toothed portion the locking bar, whereby the locking bar is held normally in engagement with the first Said bar, and means remote from the locking bar to move it to unlocked position, for the useful purpose specified.

2. In a device of the class described, the combination with the control cable of an elevator, of a bar carried by the cable, the bar being provided with teeth on oneedge, a locking bar havingteeth engageable with the first said teeth, gravity operative means for supporting the locking bar near one end and causing it normally to effect engagement with the first said bar, a rock shaft for mountingin the elevator shaft above the door openings therein, connections between said shaft and the locking bar, a pair of door locking members for mounting one on each of two doors, and means carried by the rock shaft wherebythe same maybe rocked by the locking members but only when both assume locked positions.

3. In a device of the class described, the combination with the control cable of an elevator, of a bar carried by the cable, the bar being provided with teeth on one edge, a locking bar having teeth engageable with the first said teeth, gravity operative means for supporting the looking bar near one end and causing it normally to effect engagement with the first said bar, a rock shaft for mounting in the elevator shaft above the door openings therein, connections between said shaft and the locking bar, a pair of door locking members for mounting one on each of two doors, and a swivel plate carried by the rock shaft and lengageable by either or both of the door locking members, so that the movement of the door locking members to closed position is "required to impart movement to the rock shaft and thus release the said locking bar.

4. In a device ofthe kind described, the

combination with an elevator control cable, of releasable locking means for said cable, operating members connected with said means, a swivel plate carried by one of said members, the two being operatively connected and a latching element forattachment one on each of a pair of swinging doors, both of said latching elementsbeing engageable with said swivel plate in the manner and for the purpose specified.

5. In a device of the kind described, the combination with the control cable of an elevator, of locking means operatively connected with the cable and embodying a looking bar, a weighted lever pivotally mounted on the wall of the elevator shaft and operatively connected with the locking bar, a pair of'door locking members for mounting one on each of two doors, and means operatively connecting both door locking members with said locking bar in the manner. and for the purpose specified. I i i In testimony whereof I ture.

affix my signa- FRANK DIWILT. 

